The present disclosure relates to a multi component counter top water filtration system having several new and unique features, more specifically to a counter top water filtration system having two filtration media cartridges, one media cartridge being replaceable at least twice before the second media cartridge exceeds its useful life and requires replacement and most specifically to a counter top water filtration system that separates the plumbing and electronic components wherein the lower housing unit houses the plumbing components such as the water filtration pressure vessel, tubing and flow indication signaling device and the upper unit houses the electronics component and filtration methods related thereto.
In the past, various types of filtration systems including apparatus have been used to filter water. Over the years, a number of water filtration systems and devices have been developed to meet the needs of the users who desire to filter their water beyond that provided by various other means including municipal water filtration efforts. It seems that as technology advances to ease man's every day burdens; our society seems to generate more contaminants and additives, which then find their way into our water supplies. Thus, in order to reduce our exposure to the contaminants and impurities now found in our water supply it has become increasingly important to take additional steps beyond municipal water treatment in order to remove contaminates from our water before it is consumed.
In that regard, many end users have expressed increasing concerns regarding the extent of the contamination in their drinking water supplies. To address these concerns, end users have taken a variety of measures to ensure removal of the maximum amount of contamination from their drinking water. In order to accomplish this, some end users now purchase bottled water while others have installed water filtration systems in their homes.
Presently there are numerous types of home water filtration systems that are commercially available. Some of these systems utilize distillation, activated carbon filtration, sediment filters, deionization, ion exchange, reverse osmosis separation, and other types of filtration and separation systems for removing impurities from potable water. The types of systems available to the homeowner range from simple filters with limited capacities that remove impurities to elaborate and expensive systems, which may be complex and cumbersome. Some systems/units attach directly to and hang from the faucet or tap. There are also units, which require complex plumbing attachments prior to connection with the faucet or tap. Additionally, there are countertop units which can be connected to the faucet or tap, but occupy countertop space near the faucet or tap.
Most water filtration systems require a pressure vessel connected to an influent supply of potable water. The water enters the pressure vessel and the impurities in the water are filtered and/or separated out by the water being forced under pressure through a filtering or separating medium. Reject water is then allowed to drain from the system, and the effluent purified water is directed to an outlet for consumer use. Typically, the pressure vessel is contained in an outer housing, which is more aesthetically pleasing in appearance than the pressure vessel. In addition, the usual apparatus has the inlet at one end of the pressure vessel and the outlet at the other end of such vessel. Thus, it is not unusual that significant plumbing considerations are encountered to accommodate the pipes, tubes or hoses needed to connect the filtration system to the homeowner's present plumbing.
It has always been the case that certain types of filters or separation mediums are more efficient at removing certain types of impurities in the water. Thus, although an activated carbon filter may filter out unwanted dissolved organic compounds, it does not eliminate bacterial or viral impurities. Consequently, all single stage filtration systems are limited to filtration that can be effectively accomplished by the single filtering medium within the pressure vessel.
In an attempt to address, the limitations of single stage filtration systems, several multistage filtration systems have been developed which combine at least two filtering mediums into one device or into a series of separate devices to incorporate the advantages of each medium in the filtration process. A major drawback to multistage filtration of water in a system to be available to the homeowner is that such systems can be complex and costly and require elaborate tubing between the water source and filtering mediums. Additionally, the amount or degree of impurities contained in the potable water supplied to a home may vary dramatically from one location to another location. Thus, while one homeowner may have a need for eliminating bacterial contamination, another homeowner may have a need to remove a high degree of contaminant particulate. Consequently, end users in each community may face very different filtration needs. For example, end users in one community may have no need for a system to remove bacterial contamination, and end users in that community certainly would not desire to purchase that capability if it is not needed.
Furthermore, with usage, the filtration system collects the impurities, which are captured within the filters and the like. This impurities collection can dramatically reduce the efficiency of the filtration system. Some of these prior filtration systems do not have replaceable filtration mediums. Thus, instead of just replacing the clogged medium with a new clean medium, a new total filtration system must be purchased.
There are systems that the end cap that is attached to the filter media and is part of the pressure boundary yet has no fluid port because its function is only to close the pressure vessel and not to act as a fluid flow outlet. Fluid communication is through the opposite end of the pressure vessel, as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,929 to Bassett.
Although there have been a number of developments in household water filtration systems, it would be an improvement to provide a filtration system in which the filtration mediums can be individually replaced without compromising the integrity of the total filtration system so that a homeowner user may maximize the useful life of each filter medium.
Yet another improvement would be to provide a filtration system in which filtration mediums can be removed in order to replace a clogged or dirty filtration medium with a fresh, new filtration medium thereby enhancing the operating efficiency of the system and maximizing the number of permanent system components.
It would be a further improvement to provide a multistage filtration system, which directs the influent potable water through filtration and separation stages within a single, compact container, which would utilize a minimum of countertop space and eliminate the need for interconnecting tubing between filtration stages.
It has been known in the state of the art for manufactures to balance the various stages of a multi stage filter. As is known in the art, balancing refers to a design process where the performance and life for each filter media of each filter stage is first measured. Then, either the life or the performance of the filter media of each filter stage is matched in an effort to insure that the filter media of each of the filter stages are effectively simultaneously depleted. Previously, it has proven difficult to overcome the problem as to when the life or performance of one media in one stage is significantly longer in life or better in performance than the filter media of one or more of the other filter stages. As will be explained below, the typical particulate filter media stage has a life 6 times that of the typical chemical reduction filter media stage. This substantial difference in filter media life has been the cause of considerable compromises when traditional media balance methods were applied.
As will be described below, the present disclosure provides solutions that combine the greatest life particulate reduction media stage (a life of about 2 years) combined with a cost competitive chemical reduction filter media in a new and innovative manner. If the chemical reduction media were required to have the same life as the particulate reduction filter media, it has been shown that few consumers could afford the resulting filter system nor would they be willing to accept the resulting relatively large filter housing that would be required to house the resulting relatively large amount of filter media.
The innovation of the present disclosure would solve the problem of filtration media balancing by allowing the consumer to change the filtration media that has the shortest life at a different rate than the filtration media having the greater life. As one representative example, one filtration media cartridge contains a carbon block media and another filtration media cartridge contains a pleated membrane media. Depending on the filter performance specifications, the carbon block filtration media cartridge for VOC's, Pb, Hg, Chlorine, TTHM's, and more could be spent in about 4 months, while the pleated membrane filtration media cartridge for Cyst, Asbestos, Turbidity, Sediment, E Coli, R. terrigena, B diminuta, Psuedonomas Aeruginosa might have a useful life as long as 2 years. If both filtration media were in a typical single cartridge, disposing of the cartridge at the 4 month point would result in the loss of 20 months of membrane life. By using the cartridge in cartridge innovation of the multi component counter top water filtration system of the present disclosure, the multi component counter top water filtration system of the present disclosure is capable of meeting rigorous performance specifications for the carbon block filtration media cartridge with significantly high efficiency due to the enhanced ability to economically change the carbon block filtration media cartridge frequently. Being able to meet such rigorous performance specifications for the carbon block filtration cartridge in traditional cartridge filtration systems would be more limited with a significant efficiency reduction when compared to the multi component counter top water filtration system of the present disclosure.
The design challenges for a counter top dual filter filtration system wherein the filtration media consist of very different performance characteristics include the encapsulation of both filter media in a single pressure vessel while minimizing the size of the pressure vessel.
One filtration media, the mechanical reduction filtration media, such as, for example, a pleated membrane, is capable of much greater life and typically costs more then the chemical reduction filter media, such as, for example, carbon block. As would be understood by those skilled in the art, in order to produce a chemical filter that matches the mechanical filters life, the chemical filter would have to be extremely large. Such an arrangement, in addition to being inconvenient to the end user, would entail greater cost to produce the carbon block and to encapsulate both filtration media in a single pressure vessel and thus would ultimately increase the cost to end-users.
There have been many attempts to produce dual stage filtration units. However, such attempts have always faced the problem of how to balance the filtration stages within a singular pressure vessel to optimize performance, pressure drop and chemicals/mechanical performance while maintaining control of the size of the unit. In the past, the entire pressure vessel has been replaced when one of the filtration stages became exhausted. However, this practice has proven costly when the other filtration stage has useful remaining life or where relatively small size is a primary consideration.
This basic design problem has previously been solved by others by making all larger pressure vessels or by producing multi stage filtration systems. With most prior multi stage filtration system, mechanical and chemical filters are housed in separate pressure vessels. When either of the filtration media is exhausted, that particular filter cartridge is replaced while leaving the other filtration media in the system.
One representative possible solution to the above problems is to provide a singular pressure vessel, sump enclosure, wherein the center filter media is replaceable while maintaining the second filter media in place. Moreover, with this arrangement, the mechanical filter media is contained in and encapsulated in a pressure vessel with inlet and outlet ports attached to the neck of the closure portion. The closure portion also features an opening to the center or core around the mechanical filter to allow a chemical filter media to be inserted therebetween. This chemical filtration media is operatively connected to the pressure vessel by seals and locking lugs. When utilizing both the mechanical filtration units and a chemical filtration unit, pressure vessel size reduction was achieved by permanently operatively positioning and encapsulating the mechanical filtration media within the pressure vessel and providing for the location of a chemical filtration media to be removably inserted within the opening within the center core of the mechanical filtration media, the chemical filtration media being attached to the pressure vessel by the previously mentioned seals and locking locks. Such arrangements reduce the size of the pressure vessel that would otherwise be required. It has been found that this particular arrangement works well utilizing a mechanical filter media having a life about six times the life of the chemical filtration media.
The innovative pressure vessel has a removable center core cartridge that would allow the changing of the carbon block cartridge at the 4 month point and leave the outer membrane filtration cartridge in place within the pressure vessel. Once the useful life of the carbon block cartridge has been reached, the exhausted carbon block cartridge is removed and a new carbon block cartridge is inserted into the pressure vessel while the membrane portion operatively positioned in the pressure vessel still has useful life remaining. In one representative system, the carbon block component would be changed 6 times more often than the membrane component.
The major benefit to the end user is that they are only changing the filtration media that is exhausted and not the filtration media that still has remaining useful filter life.